An  Autobiographical  Sketch 
nenvj   Poor  Perkins 


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An  AuK)biographical 
Sketch 


Read  Before  The  Afternoon  Club  of  Claremont,  California 


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By 

HENRY  POOR  PERKINS 

October  6,  1921 


>  CHAPTER  I  '  V  >    . 

\o  My  life  easily  divides  into  three  chapters,  1856.  the  birth-year,  opens  the 

Ai        first.     1882  saw  me  starting-  for  China,  bej^inning-  Chapter  Two.     1910  brinpi-s 

•      the  two  parents  and  five  children  together  in  my  parents'  home  in  Worcester, 

—         Mass.,  thus  opening  Chapter  Three. 

My  honorable  birth-place  was  Ware,  Massarchusetts,  a  thriving  town  of 
-^  perhaps  three  thousand  persons  on  the  Ware  riveV  which  furnished  the  major 
S^         power  of  three  large  cotton  mills  and  two  large  woolen  mills. 

,  My  father  was  the  minister  of  the  "Orthodox"  Congregational  Church. 

1  was  born  in  the  large  house  on  Main  Street  just  West  of  the  Palmer  Road, 
but,  before  I  can  remember,  we  moved  to  the  house  which  afte  rward 
became  the  Parsonage.  This  was  the  home  all  through  this  first  chapter  and 
here  four  brothers  and  one  sister  were  born. 

My  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Henry  Poor  and  Mary  Osborn  of  South 
Danvers,  later,  Peabody.  My  travels  abroad  began  in  visiting  these  grand- 
parents. The  first  part  was  a  ride  in  a  large  two-horse  stage  to  either  Palmer 
or  over  the  hills  to  West  Brookfield.  Thence  by  train  to  Boston  where 
behind  their  rails  in  the  big  station  perhaps  fifty  hack-men  were  lustily 
calling  out  "Hack,"  "Hack,"  "Hack,"  making  a  soul-stirring  din. 

Perhaps  my  earliest  memory  is  of  my  experience  in  the  South  Danvers 
church  vestry  where  a  fair  was  being  held.  I  was  not  very  tall  as  I  had  to 
look  up  to  the  toys  on  the  board  counter.  My  grand-father  asked  me  which 
of  two  horses  I  liked  best  (I  am  very  sure  he  said  "best"  not  "better"),  the 
one  on  wheels  or  the  one  on  rockers.  I  think  I  more  admired  the  one  on 
wheels,  at  any  rate  he  bought  and  gave  me  the  one  for  which  I  voted. 

On  the  tablets  of  my  memory  I  find  no  one  more  cordial,  no  one  more 
loving  and  lovable  than  my  mother's  father — Henry  Poor  of  Peabody.  I  did 
not  go  to  school  until  after  I  was  seven.  I  think  I  could  read  a  little.  As 
far  back  as  I  can  remember  I  read  my  verse  in  morning  prayers  and  perhaps 
was  doing  so  at  this  time.  My  most  vivid  recollection  of  this  first  school  is 
that  of  the  teacher — Miss  Hutchins — every  now  and  then  getting  out  a  box 
of  beans  which  she  would  throw  over  the  floor.  At  once  the  whole  school 
was  also  on  the  floor,  each  girl  and  boy  trying  to  salvage  the  largest  number. 
When  reseated  the  one  in  the  corner  would  call  out  the  number  in  hand. 
To  this  number  the  next  pupil  added  his  own  as  quickly  and  correctly  as  he 
or  she  could.  I  have  never  had  a  more  stimulating  educational  exercise 
than  this. 

How  much  of  our  education  comes  from  the  books  we  read  all  along  the 
wa}^ — Robinson  Crusoe,  Aesop's  Fables — I  can  see  many  of  the  pictures  still 
— The  Rollo  Books,  Agnes  Strickland's  Queens  of  England,  Cudjo's  Cave, 
Mayne  Reid's  books,  Swiss  Family  Robinson,  Hans  Anderson's  Fairy  Tales 
(Great  Claus  and  Little  Claus  was  my  favorite),  Carlton's  Winning  His 
Way  and  all  of  Oliver  Optic's  books  that  I  could  get  hold  of. 

Some  of  these  were  our  own  or  in  my  father's  library.  Others  we  got 
from  the  circulating  library  owned  by  the  book  store  and  let  out  for,  I 
believe,  one  cent  a  day. 

For  our  Sunday  reading  there  was  the  Sunday  School  library  but  T 
remember  none  of  its  books  unless  possibly  Pilgrim's  Progress,  although  I 
suspect  that 'this  was  one  of  my  father's  books. 

I  clearly  remember  the  announcement  of  Lincoln's  death  by  a  man  who 
rode  past  my  cousin  and  myself  who  were  wheelbarrowing  tanbark  into  my 
grandfather's  woodshed.  Lincoln  died  on  the  morning  of  April  15,  1865. 
We  at  once  decided  that  we  would  do  no  more  work  that  day,  though  we 
were  being  liberally  paid. 

Our  circle  gradually  enlarged  to  the  number  of  seven  children.  Two 
died  in  early  boyhood,  the  others  are  living.  We  must  have  talked  at  the 
table  of  all  the  usual  topics  but  the  one  subject  that  stands  out  vividly  is 
theology  ;  predestination  and  free-will  being  the  favorites. 

I  remember  when  we  began  to  use  "fluid"  in  small  hand  lamps  instead 
of  candles.     We  always  had  gas  from  one  of  the  mills. 

We  burned  wood  in  the  furnace  and  kitchen  which  gave  me  early  and 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  saw-horse  and  ax.  We  always  had  a  horse, 
hens  and  garden  from  which  I  derived  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  natural 
history. 


\\'e  children  had  a  monthly  allowance  of  from  lo  to  20  cents  according- 
to  age.  This  gave  tis  a  fund  from  which  to  spend  or  give  or  save — a  very 
important  feature  in  our  education. 

Huckleberrying  in  summer  and  chestnuting  in  the  fall  were  sources  of 
much  pleasure  and  sometimes  of  profit.  One  summer  I  laid  by  $13.00  from 
the  berries  I  sold.  I  think^vith  much  satisfaction  of  the  fact  that  when  a 
boy  I  was  not  taught  eithePfear  or  to  hate  capital. 

At  the  age  of  thirteen  I  joined  the  church — a  well  remembered  event  in 
my  life.     Also  my  first  public  prayer — what  a  hard  battle  that  was ! 

Speaking  of  battles,  I  remember  one  from  which  I  ran  away.  This  was 
at  a  time  when  1  stuttered  very  badly.  One  day  my  grandmother  sent  me 
down  to  the  fish-market  for  fish.  By  the  time  I  had  entered  the  place  I 
felt  sure  that  I  could  never  pronounce  the  name  of  the  fish  wanted  so  I 
excused  myself  and  ran  back.  Of  course  they  laughed  at  me  and  I  think  I 
returned  and  accomplished  the  task. 

My  father  had  some  tools  and  a  work-bench  in  the  attic  which  he  let 
us  boys  use.  We  came  to  own  a  turning-lathe  and  other  tools  from  which 
we  derived  pleasure  and  education. 

All  of  my  schooling  before  entering  college  was  in  the  public  schools 
except  two  terms  in  Monson  Academy  to  which  two  or  three  of  us  went 
daily  by  train,  the  first  coming  of  which  to  Ware,  a  year  or  two  before,  I 
well  remember.  Charles  Hammond  was  Principal  and  taught  us  Cicero. 
Probably  as  often  as  once  a  week  he  would  remind  us  of  how  "Old  Father 
Mills  of  Torrington,  Conn.,  used  in  his  long  morning  prayer  to  pray,  "O 
Lord,  help  these  my  people  to  learn  to  distinguish  between  things  that 
difi^er."  I  am  sure  I  owe  both  minister  and  teacher  a  large  debt  for  this 
oft  repeated  warning. 

Between  this  time  and  my  entrance  to  college  I  was  under  Charles 
Edward  Carman  who  later  became  professor  of  moral  philosophy  in  Amherst 
College.  His  working  motto  must  have  been,  "Hard  worn  can  accomplish 
anything,"  and  he  certainly  led  the  way. 

I  entered  Williams  with  my  brother  Charles  in  1875.  Those  four 
years  abide  in  reverent  and  loving  memory.  Mark  Hopkins  taught  only  the 
seniors  in  the  class-room  but  took  his  turn  in  the  college  pulpit. 

I  am  sure  that  those  four  years  did  much  to  establish  my  faith  in 
Reason.  They  helped  me  to  see  why  the  Roman  church  makes  such  per- 
sistent efi""orts  to  hold  the  education  of  its  children  in  its  own  hands. 

Then  followed  two  years  in  Hartford  Theological  Seminary.  Here  I 
had  to  go  back  and  breathe  very  mediaeval  atmosphere.  I  remember  asking 
President  Hartranft  whether  Noah's  scheme  of  keeping  alive  two  of  all  the 
species  was  not  too  large  a  tax  on  our  minds.  His  reply  was  that  having 
to  accept  miracles  (which  he  and  all  the  members  of  the  faculty  had  to  do) 
one  might  as  well  believe  in  a  big  one  as  in  a  little' one. 

The  day  before  our  licensure  examination  I  asked  Professor  Carr 
whether  we  should  answer  according  to  what  we  had  been  taught  or  accord- 
ing to  what  we  believed.  He  made  no  reply  and  later  I  was  told  that  he  felt 
pained  at  the  question.  However,  we  were  not  very  roughly  handled  by  our 
examiners.  One  of  them  said,  "What  we  really  want  to  know  is  whether 
vou  young  gentlemen  are  all  right  theologically."  One  of  the  class — W.  D.  P. 
Bliss — made  answer,  "I  know  them  all  and  I  think  I  can  assure  you  that 
we  are,  all  of  us,  all  right."  This  confident  assertion  seemed  to  satisfy  the 
consciences  of  the  examiners  and  all  six  of  us  were  let  by. 

I  had  bought,  a  year  or  two  before,  an  anatomy,  a  physiology  and  a 
skeleton,  with  which  I  had  passed  a  good  many  spare  hours  with  the  idea 
that  the  call  of  the  foreign  field  would  probably  get  me.  So  now  I  chose, 
instead  of  a  third  year  of  theology,  one  year  in  the  Medical  School  of  the 
University  of  the  City  of  New  York.  As  I  look  back  o\er  my  life  I  am 
convinced  that  this  was  a  thoroughly  wise  decision. 

Of  those  very  able  instructors  the  one  who  stands  out  most  prominently 
is  Dr.  William  Thompson,  the  son  of  the  Syrian  missionary  who  wrote  "The 
Land  and  The  Book."  His  hour's  lecture  was  a  driving  into  the  mind  of 
one  or  two  nails,  many  of  which  remain  in  my  mind  today  firm  enough  to 
hang"  things   on.      I    hardly   need    say    that    not    one    of   these   teachers    was 


concerned  oxer  the  traditions  in  medicine  or  surgery.  What  is  true  as  to 
disease?  What  is  true  as  to  the  cure  of  disease?  These  were  the  two  all- 
important  questions.  In  the  summer  of  1882  I  was  ordained  and  packing" 
lip  my  skeleton  and  a  few  other  essentials  I  set  forth  for  Tientsin  onto  the 
Bund  of  which  great  city  I  walked  from  the  Shanghai  steamer,  November 
19th. 

C"H AFTER  TI 

I  found  life  in  this  foreign  community  very  i)leasant.  I  had  for  teacher 
a  young  native  who  knew  not  one  English  word  and  to  whom,  before  coming 
to  me,  all  foreigners  had  been  very  suspicious  characters.  He  told  me  later 
that  at  first  he  was  careful  to  take  a  seat  near  the  door  so  that  if  attacked  he 
would  have  a  better  chance  for  escape.  Also  that  one  day  when  1  took  my 
knife  from  my  pocket  and  opened  it  he  thought  that  perhaps  his  last  hour 
had  come.  "Why  did  you  fear?"  "Why  you  know  all  those  stories  about 
foreigners  cutting  out  Chinese  eyes  for  medicine  which  started  the  massacre 
of  1870 — we  all  believed  them  then." 

In-  the  spring  of  '85  I  went  to  our  Shantung  station  of  Pang  Chuang  to 
study  and  work  with  the  two  doctors  as  we  had  no  medical  work  in  Tient- 
sin. In  October,  1885,  I  married  Miss  Dr.  Akers  of  the  Methodist  Women's 
Hospital  of  llentsin.  1  do  not  ask  anyone  to  explain  to  me  the  meaning 
of  the  four  Chinese  characters  whose  translation  is  "A  mate  made  by 
Heaven.." 

The  mission  was  more  than  satisfied  with  the  development  of  our 
country  station  and  asked  Rev.  and  Mrs.  F.  M.  Chapin  to  open  another, 
fifty  miles  further  south,  in  the  Chou  city  of  Lin  Ching.  Sometime  later  we 
were  asked  to  join  them.  I  spent  the  summer  of  '88  with  Mr.  Chapin  in  the 
small  compound  on  Doughnut  Street  in  which  the  native  buildings  were  be- 
ing foreignized  with  board  floors,  glass  windows  and  plastered  walls.  We 
had  no  ice  but  kept  our  butter  on  the  ground  under  the  trap-door  in  our 
largest  room.  Even  so,  a  spoon  \^'as  often  more  useful  than  a  knife  for 
getting  it  out  of  the  dish. 

Our  families  came  in  the  fall. 

W^e  rented  two  other  places;  one  for  preaching,  the  other  for  dispen- 
sary and  hospital  purposes.  Dr.  and  Mrs.  E.  R.  Wagner  came  in  '90  so  that 
we  could  and  did  return  in  '92  to  the  United  States. 

Returning  to  China  in  '93  we  were  asked  to  go  to  Pao  Ting  Fu  where 
we  lived  for  one  year  and  then  back  to  Lin  Ching  where  we  spent  the  rest 
of  our  second  term.  The  work  developed  slowly  but  steadily.  The  Chinese 
found  that  we  could  give  them  real  help  in  their  troubles  of  body,  mind  and 
estate.  They  found  that  the  Bible  was  a  very  interesting  and  important 
book.  Dr.  Taylor  of  Pao  Ting  Fu  gave  me  a  Japanese  manikin  which 
proved  a  thing  of  interst  to  thousands  of  men  from  near  and  far. 

Our  station  was  in  the  northwest  corner  of  the  Shantung  province.  No- 
vember 14,  1897,  (jermany  liegan  operations  with  "mailed  fist,"  taking  pos- 
session of  Tsing  tao  on  the  coast  and  the  territory  thirty  miles  around  it. 
By  the  fall  of  '99  we  began  to  get  premonitions  of  the  coming  storm.  Our 
compound  was  adjacent  to  the  large  Mohammedan  mosque  around  which 
were  living  several  scores  of  Mohammedan  families  who  were  sure  that 
if  we  were  looted  they  would  also  suffer. 

One  day  1  was  asked  to  go  out  to  the  gate-house  guest-room  where  I 
found  a  burly  Mohammedan  corporal  who  told  me  that  the  day  before  he 
had  taken  a  band  of  his  soldiers  out  to  the  east  where  they  met  another 
the  foreigners.  He  told  them  that  they  had  his  permission  except  that  if 
M^and  of  young  men  coming  to  the  city,  as  they  told  him,  to  pay  a  visit  to 
the  foreigners.  He  told  them  that  they  had  his  permission  except  that  if 
they  did  so  they  would  have  to  go  over  his  dead  body. 

A  few  years  after  in  Pao  Ting  Fu  I  asked  one  of  the  Mohammedan 
priests  "Do  you  Mohammedans  feel  nearer  to  us  foreigners  or  to  the  Chi- 
nese??"    He  at  once  replied,  "To  you,"  and  I  think  he  was  sincere. 

In  May,  1900,  the  two  families  of  the  station,  with  Miss  Jones,  left  for 
Mission  meeting  or  Pei  Tai  Ho  our  summer  resort.  I  remained  in  Lin 
Ching.       The  German  minister  in  PeJ^jng  was  shot  Jvme  20th  which  must 


have  been  about  the  time  that  Gov.  Yuan  Shin  Kai  ordered  liis  subordin- 
ates to  get  all  the  foreigners  out  of  the  province. 

I  obeyed  the  command  by  going  to  Tsinan,  the  capitol,  where  of 
course  the  Governor  was.  There  1  found  in  the  Presbyterian  compound 
a  small  company  of  that  mission  and  others  who  had  come  in  from  the 
Avest. 

The  Canadian  Presbyterians  of  Honan  were  expected  to  come  out  our 
way,  so  Mr.  Hamilton  of  the  Tsi^n  station  and  myself  waited  for  them 
while  the  others  left  for  the  coast  by  small  river  boats. 

W'hile  we  were  waiting  we  heard  that  all  the  foreginers  in  Peking  had 
been  killed  and  soon  the  Imeprial  Edict  calling  Ifor  the  extermination  of 
all  foreigners  in  China  was  posted  in  our  city  gate-way.  At  the  same  time 
the  Governor  posted  by  the  side  of  it  his  own  proclamation  stating  that  it 
was  not  certain  that  the  other  was  authentic  and  so  was  not  to  be  obeyed. 
He  also  kept  a  guard  of  soldiers  in  our  compound,  some,  if  not  all,  of  whom 
were  more  than  half  persuaded  that  the  Boxers  were  the  genuine  agents  of 
the  gods  who  w^ere  angry  with  the  foreignrs  for  trying  to  dethrone  them. 

When  we  learned  that  the  Honan  missionaries  had  gone  south  we  left  by 
the  same  route  taken  by  the  others,  found  the  steamer  returned  for  us  and 
so  to  Chefu  where  I  learned  that  my  wife  and  five  of  the  six  children  had 
left  for  Japan  an  hour  before. 

1  therefore  shaped  my  course  for  Kobe  which  I  reached  July  i6,  Mon- 
day. On  Thursday  my  oldest  daughter,  who  had  been  at  Tientsin  at 
school,  appeared,  and  on  the  late  afternoon  of  the  same  day  I  went  out  and 
boarded  the  steamer  where  I  met  my' wife  with  the  other  children  and 
Franklin  Chapin. 

We  waited  in  Kobe  until  the  foreigners  in  Peking  were  liberated  and 
then  came  on  to  the  United  States,  thus  bringing  to  a  close  our  second 
term  in   China. 

During  this  and  the  former  vacation  I  did  considerable  speaking  in  the 
Congregational  churches  both  of  New  England  and  the  Middle  W^est.  This 
work  I   found  very  pleasant. 

In  the  late  summer  of  'oi  I  set  forth  for  China  by  way  of  England.  Dur- 
ing my  wait  in  London  I  \isited  Oxford  and  had  a  pleasant  chat  with  Dr. 
Driver.  To  my  principal  question  his  immediate  reply  was,  "I  do  not 
know." 

The  question  was  whether  human  nature  and  the  Divine  nature  were  two 
things  or  one  thing. 

Reaching  Tientsin  the  first  business  seemed  to  be  to  arrange  for  a  mis- 
sion meeting  of  the  few  missionaries  on  the  field.  By  this  meeting  1  was 
located  in   Pao  Ting  Fu,  after  visiting  Lin  Ching. 

Returning  to  Tientsin  I  was  surprised  to  find  that  a  remark  made  to 
friends  in  the  London  Mission  had  been  taken  seriously.  The  remark  was 
to  the  effect  that  now  would  seem  to  be  a  good  time  for  the  two  Con- 
gregational Missions  of  England  and  America  to  unite  their  educational 
work  in  North  China. 

Now  1  found  myself  invited  to  elaborate  the  idea  before  their  Mission 
meeting  which  I  very  briefly  did.  Rev.  W.  H.  Reese  was  ai)pointe.d  to 
work  with  me  on  the  matter.  We  at  once  tried  to  enlist  other  influential 
members  in  the  two  missions  and  succeeded  so  well  that  before  long  the 
Union  was  standing  on  its  own  feet  and  in  due  time  extended  its  influence 
to   the  other  large   missions   of   North    China. 

1  then  went  to  Lin  Ching.  1  easily  found  the  place  where  our  com- 
pound used  to  be,  but  nothing  (dse,  e\en  the-  l)ricd<s  had  been  taken  oiit  of 
the  well  and  the  hole  filled  to  the  top. 

After  a  few  days  pleasantly  spent  here,  I  returned  through  Paong 
Chuang  where  were  living  Dr.  and  Mrs.  A.  H.  Smith  in  the  only  compound 
of  the  whole  mission  which  had  not  been  destroyed.  He  had  a  large  library, 
but  I  very  quickly  found  in  it  the  one  book  which  I  wanted,  namely,  a 
school  history  of  the  United  States  with  the  Constitution.  This  book  and 
another  which  I  found  in  Dr.  Porter's  library,  and  a  Greek  and  English 
New  Testament,  taken  when  i  left  Lin  Ching,  were  the  only  books  of  my 
library  not  destroyed. 

Speaking  to  Dr.  Smith   about  our  -.Constitution  having  in  it  something, 


or  some  things  perhaps,  likely  to  be  of  use  to  China  in  the  near  future,  he 
said  to  me,  "You  are  a  hundred  years  too  late."  Not  long  after  in  Peking, 
our  other  Nestor — Dr.  Sheffield — said  to  me  on  the  same  subject,  "You  are 
a  hundred  years  too  earl)."  1  could  not  resist  the  inward  conclusion  that 
perhaps  the  right  time  was  not  far  away.  However,  the  Constitution  had 
to  wait  a  few  years. 

The  first  evening  in  Pao  ling  Vu  I  was  called  on  by  the  board  of 
members  living  in  the  neighborhood.  As  they  were  leaving  and  about  to 
say  "Ciood-night,"  altogether  outside  the  open  door,  1  said  to  ithem,  "I 
have  come  to  China  this  time  not  to  ask  you  to  help  me,  but  to  help  you." 
It  took  forty-fi\'e  years  o  flife  and  nineteen  years  of  missionary  experi- 
ence to  bring  out  that  sentence.  Their  response  was  immediate  and  very 
noticeable,  and  I  have  always  been  glad  that  I  began  my  third  term  on 
this  platform. 

Yuan  Shih  Kai  was  then  Governor  of  Chihli  and  li\ing  in  Pao  Ting 
Fu.  1  slowly  and  prayerfully  composed  a  letter  to  him  thanking  him  for 
saving  lives  of  so  many  Shantung  missionaries,  and  saying  that  I  would 
like  to  do  something  for  China  if  possible.  So  1  ])ointed  out  one  of  the 
chief  sources  of  strength  common  to  all  the  greater  governments,  except 
Russia,  in  their  elected  Parliaments  working  with  the  Government  for  the 
general  welfare.  1  wrote  the  letter  in  English  as  1  wished  to  have  it  cor- 
rected as  much  as  possible  before  sending  it  to  the  Governor.  A  few 
friends  in  Peking  read  it,  also  Minister  Conger,  but  \  did  not  succeed  in 
getting  any  suggestions  or  amendment.  I  then  turned  it  into  Chinese  and 
sent  it  to  the  Governor.  He  thanked  me  very  cordially  in  his  reply  but 
said  that  China  must  have  education  first,  etc. 

I  then  had  some  fifteen  copies  of  the  political  ])art  of  the  letter  written 
out  and  for  these  there  was  an  active  demand  from  the  non-official  literati 
of  the  city,  though  I  reserved  a  few  for  circulation  outside  of  the  province. 

The  pressure  on  the  Governor  began  at  once  so  that  he  had  to  take 
it  to  Peking.  When  I  was  next  in  Peking  1  was  inxited  to  meet  Prince 
Su  and  then  some  of  the  higher  Chinese  officials.  It  was  not  long  before 
Governor  Yuan  put  out  a  proclamation  'in  which  it  was  easy,  for  me  at 
least,  to  see  traces  of  a  new  idea  about  the  future  government  of  China. 

A  very  brief  outline  of  another  kind  of  aetivities  will  have  to  begin  back 
at  the  Mission  meeting  before  referred  to.  One  of  the  Mohammedan 
priests  of  Pao  Ting  Fu  came  to  Peking  to  urge  Dr.  Peck,  the  then  single 
missionary  of  the  station,  to  save  a  Mohammedan  prisoner  from  torture  and 
death.  He  was  rich,  which  accounted  for  the  torture.  The  officials  of  a 
Chinese  court  are  i)rofoundly  anti-capitalistic  whenever  they  get  hold  of  a 
man  of  large  property.  After  the  French  soldiers  came  he  had  worked 
with  them  against  his  enemies — the  Boxers — and  had  no  doubt  dealt  out 
drastic  punishment.  After  the  soldiers  retired,  it  was  an  easy  matter  to 
arrest  him  and  separate  him,  alive  or  dead,  from  his  money.  Dr.  Peck  went 
to  Pao  Ting  Fu  and  asked  me  to  await  his  report.  When  this  came  it  sent 
my  mental  temperature  higher  by  several  degrees  and  I  took  it  to  Mr. 
Conger  who  advised  me  to  take  it  to  the  French  Minister.  After  reading 
it  he  telegraphed  that  if  the  torture  of  this  man  was  not  stopped  immediate- 
ly, he  would  have  a  company  of  h^-ench  soldiers  in  Pao  Ting  Fu  in  a  cer- 
tain number  of  hours.  The  Governor  thought  best  not  to  call  his  hand  and 
the   torture  was   countermanded. 

Not  long  after  this  in  Pao  Fing  Fu  this  same  priest  was  calling  on  me 
and  confided  to  me  the  fact  that  the  authorities  had  there  in  prison,  the 
Boxer  leader  on  whom  the  Empress  Dowager  had  relied  to  exterminate  all 
the  foreigners  of  the  ])rovince  and  that  he  was  soon  to  be  beheaded.  This 
news  he  doubtless  thought  would  please  me.  ]  did  not  feel  that  he  was  more 
guilty  than  the  Empress  Dowager  and  as  soon  as  1  could  do  so  I  Called  on 
the  District  Magstrate  and  toldi  him  that  if  the  authorities  would  turn  him 
over  to  me  I  would  be  answerable  for  his  future  good  behavior  and  make 
him  our  compound  gate-keeper.  He  said  he  would  inform  the  Governor  of 
n\\  request,  which  he  doubtless  did,  though  probably  not  l)efore  he  had 
heard  of  it. 

He  was  beheaded,  but  T  at  once  became  the  leading  Boxer  of  all  the 
district^.     So  far  as  1   could  see,  about  all   the  Roman  Catholics  were  play- 


ing-  the  same  g-ame,  namely,  the  transferring  of  the  bulk  of  their  property 
from  all  those  who  had  g-iven  any  sort  of  assistance  to  the  Boxers,  to  them- 
selves. Here  was  a  foreigner  in  the  city  who  had  tried  not  to  speed  up  the 
execution  of  the  Boxer  leader,  but  rather  to  save  him  from  execution. 
"Perhaps  he  will  help  us."  So  to  that  foreigner  they  came  from  a  wide  cir- 
cuit. In  some  cases  I  would  asR  one  of  our  preachers  to  investigate.  In 
other  cases  I  went  myself.  It  was  often  not  necessary  for  me  to  look  into 
the  case,  for  when  really  free  to  do  so,  the  Chinese  can  and  do  work  out 
very  even  justice. 

In  this  way  I  visited  quite  a  number  of  towns  and  villages  where  no 
Protestant  missionary  had  ever  been.  In  some  of  these  towns  the  interest  in 
the  doctrine  of  a  foreigner  who  had  heli)ed  them  in  very  real  trouble  de- 
veloped into  a  local  church. 

The  Mohammedan  priest  above  spoken  of,  had  a  son  about  fifteen  years 
old.  "Might  he  not  come  to  the  pastor's  study  each  day  for  a  little  instruc- 
tion in  the  English  language?"  "Yes."  So  began  a  work  which  rather  rap- 
idly broadened  into  what  might  be  called  a  young  men's  school  of  the 
English  language.  Several  hundred  young  men  secured  drill  in  English; 
some  only  a  few  months,  some  four  or  fire  years.  Most  were  from  that 
part  of  the  province,  but  now  and  then,  one  from  another  province.  From 
too  close  confinement  to  this  very  interesting  work,  I  contracted  my  rheu- 
matism. But  also  I  found  that  this  work  as  well  as  my  assistance  to  men 
of  property  was  giving  our  church  a  very  wide-open  door  all  over  the 
country  side. 

The  school  was  more  than  self  supporting,  for  I  furnished  nothing  but 
instruction,  and  though  I  did  not  insist  on  a  fee,  some  of  the  pupils  paid 
three  dollars  a  month.  This  helped  the  station  expense,  although  the  bulk 
of  it  was  used  to  buy  more  land  for  the  Mission  Boys'  School. 

The  pressure  of  the  provinces  on  the  throne  for  representative  gov- 
ernment steadily  strengthened  from  the  first.  An  Imprial  Commission  was 
sent  to  the  United  States  and  Europe  in  the  summer  of  1905  to  study  and 
report  the  actual  working  of  the  governments  of  the  countries  visited.  The 
commission  was  away  nearly  a  year,  and  on  its  return  recommended  the 
preparation  of  the  country  for  the  introduction  of  representative  govern- 
ment. 

I  think  it  was  before  this  commission  had  been  formed  that  I  decided 
to  put  the  United  States  Constitution  into  Chinese.  I  omitted  nothing  but 
one  section  dealing  with  representation  in  the  slave  states.  One  day  I  put 
the  finished  sheets  into  the  hands  of  one  of  the  writers,  and  .'after  two  or 
three  weeks  he  put  into  my  hands  a  bundle  of  printed  booklets.  I  never 
knew  where  they  were  printed,  nor  , who  paid  for  them,  nor  how  many 
copies  were  kept  by  others,  hence  I  could  imagaine  anything  I  wanted  to 
as  to  the  extent  to  which  it  was  contributing  to  the  pressure  which  was  all 
the  time  growing. 

September  i,  1906,  an  Imperial  Edict  was  issued,  approving  the  rec- 
ommendations of  the  Commission.  A  subsequent  Edict  fixed  the  time  of 
preparation   as   ten    years,   ending  in    1917. 

In  1907,  the  first  municipal  council  (Chinese)  Avas  elected  in  Tientsin, 
the   new   Chihli  capital. 

Provincial  Assemblies  met  for  the  first  time  on  the  first  of  the  ninth 
moon,  in  the  autumn  of  1909. 

The  first  National  Parliament  met  in  Peking  in  October,  1910.  It  was 
a  single  chamber  assembly.  Prince  Pu  Lun  presided,  but  it  had  only  delib- 
erative power. 

There  was  no  let  u])  on  the  pressure  for  a  real  Parliament,  and  1913 
was  promised  instead  of   1917. 

On  October  10,  191 1,  the  Revolution,  which  led  to  the  establishment 
of  the  Republic,  broke  out  in  Wu  Chang,  and  most  of  the  provinces  aided 
the  revolt.  China  was  declared  a  republic  January  i,  1912,  with  its  capital 
at  Nan  King.  February  12th,  the  Edict  of  Abdication  was  issued,  bringing 
to  an  end  the  thirty-fourth  Dynasty.  The  first  one,  according  to  Chinese 
chronology,  began  in  the  year  2953  B.  C,  which  date  ,added  to  1912,  gives 
4865  years. 

'The  Ta  Lu  Jih  Pao  of  Peking,  July  19,  1921,  has  the  following  (trans- 


lated)  :  "The  Government  is  in  receipt  of  a  telegram  dated  the  sixteenth 
instant,  from  General  Lu  Yung-hsiang,  Military  Governor  of  Chekiang,  to 
the  effect  that  Chel^ang  has  adopted  the  self  government  system  and  drawn 
up  the  provincial  constitution  in  accordance  with  tlic  world  tendency  and 
the  trend  of  the  times.  It  is  through  this  system  that  the  real  sentiments 
of  the  people  can  be  represented  and  their  natural  rights  developed.  As 
the  autonomous  movement  is  advocated  by  the  (people  who  are  making 
constitutions  for  themselves,  it  is  but  natural  that  such  action  can  neither 
be  put  into  operation  through  compulsion,  nor  put  down  through  suppres- 
sion. Telegrams  advocating  self  government  have  been  repeatedly  sent 
to  the  Central  Government,  which  has  given  its  consent  to  the  provinces 
to  introduct  the  autonomous  system  and  at  the  same  time  to  promulgate 
regulations  and  laws  for  self  government,  so  that  the  people  may  have 
something  to  depend   upon." 

I^Larly  in  1910  we  prei)ared  for  our  home  going.  'J"he  Chinese  set  a 
day  to  come  in  from  the  country  churches  to  say  "Good  Bye,"  and  brought 
presentation    scrolls.      1    remember    three   of    them. 

One  was:  "Carrying  All  Men  Across  the  Ferry."  A  second  read:  "Go- 
ing We  Escort  You  ;  Returning  We  Go  Out  to  Greet  You."  The  third  was 
a  saying  of  Confucius;  "Loving  Men,  Men  Forever  Love."  This  one  we  gave 
to  the  Campcllo  church  which  had  for  some  years  been  our  supporting 
church. 

Among  our  treasures  are  the  embroidered  memorial  from  the  Pao  Ting 
Fu  church  with  the  names  of  the  members  written  o  nthe  back  and  a  larger 
silk  offering  on  which  is  a  picture  of  one  of  the  country  churches.  One  of 
the  sentiments  means,  "Very  Quickly  Come  Back  to  China." 

This  would  seem  to  be  the  place  for  a  few  words  as  to  why  we  did  not 
return. 

During  all  this  third  tl^erm,  I  think,  I  never  used  the  church  creed  in 
admitting  persons  to  church  membership.  The  P.  T.  F.  church  had  three 
steps  into  the  church,  i.  The  giving  one's  name  as  an  inquirer.  2.  Taking 
the  covenant.     3.     Baptism. 

1  was  very  well  satisfied  with  this  plan.  It  made  several  months  of 
probation  and  preparation.  But  the  native  pastor  also  followed  the  mis- 
sion cusiom  of  reading  the  church  creed  and  asking  assent  to  it.  I  do  not 
think  it  was  so  extreme  as  was  the  creed  to  which  I  assented  when  I  join- 
ed the  church.  Nevertheless  the  thinking  that  had  gone  on  in  my  mind 
since  the  time  made  me  feel  that  the  application  of  the  Golden  Rule  to  this 
matter  demanded  that  I  should  not  call  for  either  a  public  or  private  ac- 
ceptance of  this  creed.  Thus  it  was,  as  I  suppose,  that  there  began  a  slow- 
ly widening  difference  between  myself  and  the  native  pastor.  By  the  time 
our  N'acation  was  due,  he  had  on  his  side  the  Presbyterian  Mission  and  the 
larger  part  of  the   American   Board'  Mission. 

To  decide  whether  we  should  be  given  a  vacation  or  something  not  so 
pleasant,  the  Mission  sent  a  deputation  of  three  to  Pao  Ting  Fu. 

The  chairman's  first  sentence  as  to  why  they  had  come  was,  as  I  re- 
member, that  they  wished  to  ask  the  Board  to  make  us  a  retiring  grant.  I 
replied  that  I  was  not  interested  in  the  subject.  They  remained  two  or 
three  days  in  which  they  interviewed  and  were  interviewed.  Then  the 
chairman  wrote  me  a  letter  in  which  he  stated  that  we  need  have  no  hesita- 
tion in  making  our  plans  for  returning  to  the  United  States.  At  our  fol- 
lowing annual  meeting  1  asked  for  a  mission  vote  on  our  having  a  vaca- 
tion, which  was  given  us  by  what  the  teller  said  was  a  practically  unanimous 
vote.     So  we  were  to  have,  D.  V.,  another  term  of  service. 

We  had  our  vacation  and  were  making  plans  for  our  return  when  the 
Board  received  a  cablegram  asking  for  our  detention  until  another  mission 
meeting  for  deciding  the  matter.  The  reversal  of  the  first  decision  came  in 
due   course. 

CHAPTER   III. 

In  the  spring  of  1912  we  invested  in  a  smalll  green-house  plant  in 
Westboro,  near  Worcester,  and  grew  flowers. 

I  joined  a  real  estate  firm  in  Worcester  for  about  half  a  year.  In  the 
summer  of  19 14  we  migrated  to  Arkansas.  A  Chinese  friend  of  Westboro, 
now  of  Shanghai,  escorted  us  as  far  as  West  Brookfield,  where  he  brought 

4471 1 "? 


us  a  paper  which  announced  the  departure  of  the  British  fleet  for  the  North 
Sea.     This  was,  I  think,  Tuesday  morning  (England's  ev^ening)  August  4th. 

In  the  Ozark  foot-hills  we  sampled  the  very  primitive  civilization  of 
this  part  o  fthe  world,  where  the  log  cabin  has  not  yet  disappeared. 

Our  small  canvass  house  stood  under  a  large  oak  which  shook  down 
icicles  large  and  small,  in  winter,  on  our  humble  roof.  None  of  them,  how- 
ever, came  through.     Good  old  Uncle  Sam  sent  our  mail  to  our  door. 

In    1916  we   moved  again,   coming  to    Claremont. 

The  house  in  the  Tientsin  compound  into  which  I  was  ushered  upon 
my  arrival,  was  known  as  the  Smith-Porter  house,  both  of  these  families 
having  departed  for  the  new  station  of  Pang  Chuang.  Now,  Hadley  Cottage, 
built  by  Dr.  Porter's  sister  and  furnished  by  his  brother,  became  our  first 
home. 

Our  second  home  was  provided  by  the  generosity  of  Mrs.  Helen  Ren- 
wick,  whom  we  first  met  in  Pao  Ting  Fu,  some  ten  years  before. 

I  would  like  to  mention  a  ifew  outstanding  names  ;^vith  very  brief 
comment.  The  first  is  Timothy  Richard.  He  was  a  noble,  Christian  man. 
He  went  for  the  center  of  things.  He  was  not  very  much  tied  to  stereotyped 
phrases.  I  think  heonce  applied  for  naturalization  to  the  Chinese  authori- 
ties.    He  became  the  head  of  the  Christian  Literature  Society  of  Shanghai. 

Jffict  him  first  in  my  Tientsin  period,  and  ^several  times  after,  always 
with   increasing  admiration. 

Gilbert  Reid — a  man  of  wide  influence,  always  planning  large  things. 

Sir  Robert  Hart,  I  met  only  once,  when  we  talked  half  an  hour  about 
a  representative  government  for  China.  He  was,  of  course,  very  tightly 
tied  to  the  old  order  and  frankly  said  that  he  could  do  nothing  to  help  me. 
This  was  very  different  from  saying  that  he  did  not  believe  in  the  idea,  and 
I   gathered  not  a  little  refreshment  of  spirit  from  our  conversation. 

Minister  and  Mrs.  Conger  I  became  acquainted  with  during  the  win- 
ter of  'oi-'02.  It  would  be  impossible  to  measure  the  assistance  they  gave 
to  China  in  those  early  months  of  reconstruction.  He  said  to  me  once  that 
he  spent  most  o  fhis  time  working  for  the  Chinese. 

Yuan  Shih  Kai  I  met  twice.  He  was  President  from  February  15,  1912, 
to  June,  1916.     He  was  an  able  man  in  a  very  difficult  position. 

I  think  it  was  in  his  first  sermon  to  our  college  class  that  Pfe^ident 
Chadbourne  said  that  in  all  other  branches  of  knowledge  we  were  to  look 
for  progress,  but  not  in  theology.  I  had  not  been  in  Pao  Ting  Fu  many 
months  when  I  met  this  idea  in  a  more  concrete  form.  The  senior  mis- 
sionary of  the  Presbyterian  Mission  had  discovered  that  I  did  not  accept 
this  proposition  and  wrote  me  that  the  condition  of  their  fellowship  was 
that  I  take  my  stand  squarely  upon  "the  faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the 
saints." 

It  seemed  to  me  then  as  it  does  today  that  a  "faith  once  for  all  deliv- 
ered" was  in  no  respect  comparable  to  the  faith  growing  and  fructifying  in 
one's  own  mind.  It  seemed  to  me  then,  as  it  does  today  that  to  love  God 
with  all  the  mind  calls  for  the  free  and  sincere  exercise  of  the  mind  on  the 
great  religious  questions.  Can  we  improve,  in  this  very  important  matter, 
on  the  example  of  Jesus?  When  he  looked  within  did  he  not  see  something 
which  He  was  not  willing  to  turn  down?  That  something  we  call  the 
knowing-together,  or  conscience.  PVom  this  region  of  our  minds,  it  seems 
to  me,  our  best  religious  thoughts  come.  If  we  are  loyal  to  them  they 
continue  to  come.  If,  for  any  so  called  reason,  we  refuse  loyalty  to  them 
they  do  not   continue  to  come. 

In  his  address  to  our  club,  last  s])ring.  Dr.  Graham  Taylor  said,  re- 
garding his  work,  "There  is  no  panacea."  Sometimes  I  incline  to  think  there 
is.  Loyalty  to  one's  best  thoughts  seems  to  me  almost  good  enough  to  be 
called  a  panacea.  Which  of  our  thoughts  are  the  best  need  cause  us  no 
great  anxiety.      Csc  those  which   seem   the  best. 

What  better  than  this  can  Robinson  Crusoe  on  his  island  do?  What 
better  the  prisoner  in  his  cell? 

What  better  can  they  do  who  gather  in  conference  over  national  mat- 
ters or  relations  between  the  nations? 

How  else  can  they  or  we  weld  the  nations  of  the  world  into  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven? 


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